TOMS is an organization with a one-to-one movement: Buy shoes or sunglasses and inturn give to someone in need. What's great about TOMS is they provide various opportunities to get involved. If you are a college student, you can start TOMS campus programs to help contribute to the cause. You can participate in "One day without shoes" or "World Sight Day" which are events created by TOMS to raise awareness about their causes. You can participate in "Ticket to Give" which is an opportunity for TOMS fans to be a part of the giving trips and travel with TOMS to give shoes or sunglasses to people in need. Another opportunity they provide is amazing internships. With TOMS, you'll actually gain real-world experience through your work. Interning gives you the opportunity to be coached for your future career and work on projects that are actually used by TOMS. TOMS provides opportunities to volunteer and to actually work as an intern. To find out more about their job opportunities and internships, go to the following link and check out what opportunities are available! http://www.toms.com/our-movement/intern/l?icid=us-home-092011_73

We have always taken advantage of what we possess, for example a pair of shoes. A few torns and we throw it away without realising that it is valuable to others. One man's trash is another man's treasure. This applies to the people who can't even afford a pair of shoes. not to mention throwing away one. That is why we need to treasure what we have and help people in need, which is what a man is doing, Blake Mycoskie. The idea of "for every pair of shoe purchased, one pair is donated to a child in need" is rather creative and encourages people to help by buying the shoes. This will make people be more aware of the plight many people are in without shoes. If only the world knows how to treasure what they have and to give rather than to take, then it will be a better place.

The copy on your website is one of the key elements that can make or break your business. The way you express yourself to your customers is a huge part of establishing your brand and one of the biggest factors in whether they will respond to your calls to action. If you're struggling to find…

Having lived in Dubai for close to 3 years now, it’s about time I wrote about one of the brands I highly admire here; the Jumeirah Group (Burj Al Arab fame). I’ve already written about the ultimate brand here and that’s Dubai itself.

What inspired me to write this post, besides the fact that I frequent many of their establishments here in Dubai on a weekly basis, was this amazing corporate video they produced a while back.

Omar Kattan's insight:

All brands, even luxury ones should tell their story. Your story doesn’t just have to be about the hundreds of years of heritage.

Here are some key takeaways I took from Jumeirah Group’s corporate video and the way they tell part of their story through it:

- Infuse a bit of your brand story in it. They could have done a bit more on that front, for my own taste, but they did give us a bit of a taster to find out more.

- Let your top management tell your story, in this case it was lead by the president and group CEO, Gerald Lawless.

- Start with your flagship brand – and remind us why it’s so amazing – in this case it’s one of the first major monuments in the UAE.

- Explain your mission & your brand promise: In this case it’s “Stay Different” – the CEO did a great job of explaining it, backed up by a diverse selection of employees and with concrete examples and imagery.

- Sprinkle with actual employees (not actors) helping explain the brand promise.Mention the word empathy (with customers) a few times and show imagery that proves that.

- Boast without really boasting; they did a great job of telling us about their impressive hotel properties without actually saying how amazing they are.

YouTube is by far the biggest user generated video platform today and the second largest search engine after Google. It is also the ideal platform to tell your brand story either directly, or by associating with other content creators to tap into an existing audience who relate to your “adjacent” story.

It doesn’t have to be glossy – actually, a homemade (user-generated) feel is better for YouTube as it feels more authentic (see tip 1)

Collaborate with others – collaborate with influencers and “YouTube Partners” in your niche. Provide general brand guidelines but let them present your brand to their audience the way they see best.

Listen to your audience – listen to and interact with your fan base and subscribers, ask them what they want and give it to them; they expect it and it also contributes to your authenticity – again, see tip 1 above.

Don’t expect engagement, ask for it – have a main call to action: “Subscribe to our channel” and ask your subscribers to engage with you via likes, comments and not only on YouTube, but also on your other social media channels such as Twitter via a dedicated #hashtag. Cross linking and in-video annotations helps increase engagement and consumption of your videos.

Be regular and reliable – Video content is an ongoing investment, if you commit, don’t back down; you will disappoint your audience and lose your credibility.

As storytelling is becoming popular in marketing, more and more businesses are trying their hand at casting a story “glow” over their communication with their audience. Much of this, however, is a loose collection of information, fact, and opinion, tossed together and given an aura of corporate branding.

Not surprisingly, many of these communications never reach their audience. Even if they get seen, they don’t necessarily get read. With your audience’s attention torn between various branded stories, how do you get them to pay attention to yours?

Omar Kattan's insight:

Stories already contain all the basic elements you need to engage your audience. Make them better by making them more cohesive and focusing on content that connects directly with their needs.

Project a trustworthy personality, have a clear direction, and leave room for customers’ opinions. Use these tips to create better, stronger stories that will get you noticed.

A while back I wrote about the Wheelchair Basketball ad and the brilliant adjacent story told by Guinness to re-enforce a simple message:

“The choices we make reveal the true nature of our character.”

To compliment the Wheelchair ad and to re-enforce the same message, and in line with the overall Guinness brand story arch, they created this highly moving “Empty Chair” ad.

Watch the viral video (4Mil+views as of this date) …

Omar Kattan's insight:

Some brands are masters of the "adjacent story", allowing the consumer to take center stage. The brand just happens to be there (like a prop, literally.) This type of brand storytelling generates empathy, empathy leads to loyalty and sales.

Funny, shocking, or relevant content will catch your audience’s attention, but the resulting engagement can be shallow and brief.

If you wish to keep your audience engaged, you will need to design a content strategy that integrates different types of content, so you can keep the relationship with your audience fresh and interesting.

You can source the needed content in a number of different ways. It’s not as difficult as you might think, and you don’t need to do all the hard work yourself.

Omar Kattan's insight:

A targeted Content Strategy supporting your brand story is a key ingredient to get it in front of the right audience, and it really doesn't have to be that painful.

According to Connie Bourg via @BrandStoriesNet:

"A successful content marketing strategy integrates many different types of content. But that doesn’t mean that you have to create it from scratch each and every time.

There are ways around the constant-need-for-content problem. By co-creating, crowdsourcing, curating, and repurposing content, you get the fresh and engaging content you need to keep your audience happy, while saving time and money for the business."

A story is strongest when it's told in the right way. A master storyteller knows exactly how and when to reveal the different elements that make up the perfect story, holding the audience in the palm of his hand. But a story in the hands of a master storyteller is not an interactive story. On…

Omar Kattan's insight:

Another blockbuster from Connie Bourg.

The point she wants you to take home is that the Internet is not a fixed medium like television or print, so stories need to be told in an interactive way.

A look at the way stories are told in games reveals a number of narrative strategies that can also be employed on brand websites.

At the same time, it opens the door to using gamification, another buzzword in marketing, to further enhance interaction on websites. After all, storytelling could be seen as just one part of a successful gamification strategy.

Not sure why it took me this long to cover this brand storytelling masterpiece, Google's reunion Ad. Better late than never. Back in 2013 Google India showed a 3.5 minute story-styled ad facilitating a reunion between two childhood friends separated by the 1947 India-Pakistan partition. Synopsis The India-Pakistan partition in 1947 separated many friends and…

Omar Kattan's insight:

With “Reunion”, Google reinforced its mission statement not by boring us with what it does and how it does it, but by telling a relatable customer story about why it does what it does. They masterfully communicated this message by weaving their USPs within captivating brand storytelling narrative.

Will Hauser and Lauren Walters – old friends – decided to start a new kind of food company: one that would make healthy, delicious products and help feed hungry children around the world. They had similar backgrounds – both were the sons of 2 doctors and both decided on business careers instead of medicine. Both…

Omar Kattan's insight:

The Two Degrees Food brand story and message is simple: The separation between you and a hungry child in the developing world may seem distant. But you are only Two Degrees away.

Today the bar is in 1,000 stores and 500,000 have been donated meals so far, now that’s impressive.

Don’t you just love a good story? Perhaps you grew up having a story read to you every evening. Even when they were about hat-wearing cats or spiders named Charlotte, those stories could capture your imagination and enable you to enter into the narrative. Maybe you still enjoy cuddling up with a good novel today. [...]

Omar Kattan's insight:

Love this latest guest post by Greg Hanson on the Brand Stories blog about what makes for a good story.

Specifically:

"a truly great story is one that is life-changing. It goes beyond just creating a feeling or a memory; it creates a desire to become a better person. Perhaps it calls you to action, challenges your value system, or enables you to see life in a brand new light. It may even cause you to re-examine your worldview."

What’s your brand story? If you can answer this question, you’re equipped to tackle the challenges brought about by the post-advertising age; an age where traditional advertising and media spend are just not what they used to be. Deep pockets don’t count as much anymore. Not too long ago, and long before the inception of [...]

Omar Kattan's insight:

In a post advertising age, your story comes first and the medium you tell it in comes second; even if that medium is a billboard or traditional TV.

I can’t believe it took me this long to find this gem. Happened across it while reading this excellent post shared by the Sandstorm Digital curation team. Watch how British Airways India tells the story of an Indian Mom, her expat son, his longing for home and the touching story that everyone can relate to. No [...]

Angela Ahrendts (ex-Burberry chief, now Apple head of retail) and Christopher Bailey have transformed the way Burberry engages with the world, from its consumers to its associates, leveraging disruptive technology to share its pure brand vision through content-rich, compelling storytelling. Blurring the lines of physical and digital—with a flagship store that mirrors the website and [...]

Omar Kattan's insight:

Arguably the best brand storyteller out there, our latest post summarizes @AngelaAhrendts' insights on what it takes for brands to succeed in today's marketplace.

With the James Bond association, Aston Martin managed to indirectly associate itself with the ultimate protagonist (hero), James Bond, a character its customer base surly aspire (if only in their imagination) to be like.

Goes to show the power of well chosen product placement to support a brand’s story and identity.

I’ve previously written about Lego and their genius relevant transmedia storytelling that’s propelled them to greatness and well ahead of their two other competitors in the Toy market; Mattel and Hasbro. They’ve always stayed true to their mission and delivered against it.

Omar Kattan's insight:

The stories companies tell have to remind us (the buyers) of what they stand for (overarching mission) beyond their obvious goal of getting us to buy from them.

For a product as boring as soap, Dove has managed to create an entire relevant storytelling campaign about Real Beauty. The idea in a nutshell, promote average-looking women as the norm and tell their stories to counter the negative self image of women all over the world.

Omar Kattan's insight:

Making your customers the heroes of your brand stories is always a winning strategy. If done right, your campaigns will appear more authentic and appealing, and your brand will be seen as more empathetic and relatable to the average Joe and Jane.

In this age of fevered brand storytelling pitches, creatives often struggle to sell their concepts to clients who just ‘don’t get it.’ We’ve all been there; the pitch is met by stony faces, sideways glances and shuffling feet. ‘That’s interesting,’ someone says, with their ‘eh? face’ on.

Being able to tell or visualise a brand story really isn’t enough; you have to be able to justify your thinking, nailing each component to a reasoned premise. If only all life’s pitches could always use the Wolff Olins ‘butterfly’ approach (each brief answering ‘what’s special about you? What does the world need?’). Oftentimes, this humanistic method simply won’t convince difficult or hostile clients.

Omar Kattan's insight:

One of our recent @BrandStoriesNet guest posts addressed "creative rationale". It was authored by one of my ex-client's talented copywriters (Sainsbury's); the brilliant Ruth Azar

According to Ruth here are 3 reasons why you should bother with Creative Rationale:

1) It helps the client meet us creatives in our ‘headspace’ by clearly explaining the reasons for the route. It’s a gateway for clients to understand our reasoning, process and expressive choices. In this way it enables communication, which enables great storytelling.

2) It provides specific criteria with which to compare different creative routes, moving storytelling into a more objective realm for the purposes of brand building.

3) It frames the creative route within a reasoned argument and helping a brand evolve. When we see reasons for choices, we begin to understand who we are – both as individuals and as organisations.

Storytelling can take many different shapes and forms. Especially when it comes to social media, a story can capture interest more efficiently if it’s told in the form of a short, amusing incident. Anecdotes are different from stories in that they are usually short, stand-alone accounts of a single event. Anecdotes are often amusing, but they must always be interesting! When used in the right way, anecdotes can become a part of your brand story arc. They have the benefit of seeming very personal, which helps to create a stronger connection between you and your audience. But there a few rules you’ll need to follow if you want to create a successful anecdote. Here is an overview.

Omar Kattan's insight:

Another great article by Connie Bourg on @BrandStoriesNet about strategic use of anecdotes for more effective brand storytelling In a nutshell... When you are writing or planning your next anecdote, remember that brand storytelling was born out of a need not only to engage with online audiences, but also to bind them to your brand in a mutual relationship of loyalty. Just like straight facts presented on a web page were not enough to hold an audience’s attention for long, an anecdote without meaning, no matter how funny, won’t have a long term effect. An effective anecdote is short, personal, exiting and has meaning to boot.

There is a reason why “Pics or It Didn’t Happen” is a popular social media meme. People don’t just want to read about something, they want to see it too.

Actually, that’s not all…. People want to see and experience authenticity. So, while visual storytelling has been around since the time of primitive man, now it’s a fast growing marketing trend, mainly thanks to the internet and social media. Businesses can use visual storytelling to let their audience experience the business in a multi-sensory way.

Omar Kattan's insight:

A great piece about using visuals to support your brand story.

Connie Bourg explains that when you use words and images to tell your audience something about yourself, your employees and business, people will have a better idea of who they are dealing with and what they can expect from the business. Visual storytelling can help mitigate misunderstandings about what it is you do or what kind of work you are involved in.

The “Stay Together” storytelling campaign from Skype was brought to my attention by one of our readers as a “perfect example of brands as storytelling mediums”. I agree. I’ve discussed this before in various blog posts but most notably this one where Harley Davidson provided their website as a platform to tell the stories women riders.

Omar Kattan's insight:

For each of the four stories in the Skype “Stay Together” Family Portraits, the brand is completely interwoven in each story and could not be told without Skype. Instead of focusing on the nuts and bolts of the technology, “Portraits” focus on how it affects lives. Each story is wildly different from the next and equally as emotional.

Storytelling is the communication of human experiences in words, images, and sounds. From its origins around the camp fire, to modern-day literature and film, storytelling has continually evolved as a tool for communicating experiences and traditions from one generation to the next. In marketing, storytelling has the power to engage target audiences on an emotional…

Omar Kattan's insight:

These words by American playwright, screenwriter, and director, David Mamet, have been taken to heart by marketing professionals everywhere.

"The audience will not tune in to watch information. You wouldn’t, I wouldn’t. No one would or will. The audience will only tune in and stay tuned in to watch drama."

Storytelling is an ancient human occupation. There’s not a culture on Earth without its rich share of myths and legends—and its tawdry gossip and scary stories. We’ve had tales as long we’ve had language; further, we’ve had them as long as we’ve had visual imagery, as the magnificent Paleolithic cave paintings of Europe and the narratives they seem to convey attest to.By considering the effects of a fine-crafted yarn on our brains, modern psychological research seems to bear out the deep roots storytelling has in our species. For one thing, studies suggest

Omar Kattan's insight:

The vivid language and narrative momentum of stories, some studies show, stimulate our brains to a significant degree. As fascinating as this research is and will surely continue to be, you don’t need it to detect the power of a saga or a yarn: You feel it right in your blood and your bones.

Need some branding inspiration? Then head to the movies. The best brands in the world aren’t built on great products, they’re built on great stories. In this three-minute emotional marketing lesson video, emotional marketing expert Graeme Newell reveals the seven story plots that can change a brand from an impersonal pitch to a transcendent human [...]

Omar Kattan's insight:

These insights are provided by Graeme Newell, Emotional Marketing Researcher at 602 Communications

“What would you say if I told you that you’ve seen every single movie ever made?

It’s true — in a way.

Experts say that there are only seven basic movie plots, so you probably polished off all seven before you could even spell your own name.

Incidentally, the seven archetypes are:

rags to riches

rebirth

quest

voyage & return

comedy

tragedy

overcoming the monster

So what does this mean for positioning a brand? Every great marketer uses one of these stories when making a customer focused brand.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.